The Business Council is part of a broad coalition
of interest groups that developed legislation to require hospitals
to track and report incidences of hospital patients contracting
infections while hospitalized.
The Council and other interest groups have been
working with the chairs of the legislative health committees, state
Sen
The Council is opposing a bill (A.2517-B/DiNapoli) that would expand
the state’s bottle bill to cover most beverage containers,
and “capture” the larger volume of unclaimed bottle
deposits to finance new state spending.
The bill effectively imposes an additional tax of $40 million a
year or more on New York State consumers in the form of increased
unclaimed bottle deposits, the Council argued in a memo opposing
the bill
The early-June heat wave last week stretched the state's ’s
electricity-generating capacity to its upper limits, reinforcing
the need for more generating capacity in New York and a new law
to expedite the process by which power plants are sited.
By mid-afternoon on June 13, New York State was consuming nearly
30,000 megawatts of electricity, close to the state’s record
high consumption of 30,983, said Anne Van Buren, director of energy
and telecommunications
The proposed constitutional amendment to “reform” the
budget process is a serious threat to the stable operation of New
York’s state government and to its taxpayers, David F. Shaffer,
president of the Public Policy Institute, argued at a Rockefeller
Institute forum on the proposal
Providing and sustaining drug coverage for retired beneficiaries
will be the main topic at a Council-sponsored prescription drug
conference June 14 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Albany.
The Council is co-sponsoring the half-day conference with the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
The Business Council is focusing on several key energy-related
issues in the weeks before the legislative is scheduled to end June
21.
“The cost of power in New York State is a significant competitive
issue, and our high costs, growing demand, and slowing growth in
capacity are worsening this competitive problem,” said Ken
Pokalsky, director of environmental and economic development programs
The Business Council is urging U.S. Senators Hilary Clinton and
Charles Schumer (D-NY) to support the U.S. - Dominican Republic
- Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) as a way to enhance
trade opportunities and create jobs.
“Enhanced trade export opportunities are crucial to the continued
growth of business in New York and to the jobs that these opportunities
create,” wrote Business Council President Daniel B
A bill that would impose strict new regulations on how one industrial
sector in New York tells customers about products “represents
government regulatory overkill of the highest order,” The
Business Council has told legislators.
The Business Council is opposing the bill (A
Rising health care costs will only be reined in when innovation
and market choice are unleashed in the health care system, agreed
two industry experts at a forum on consumer-driven health plans
in Albany May 26.
The forum, sponsored by the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center,
featured speakers Regina Herzlinger, a professor at the Harvard
School of Business, and Scott Gottlieb, a resident fellow at the
American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank
ALBANY—The Business Council’s Board of Directors voted Tuesday
May 24 to formally oppose a proposed constitutional amendment that would
“reform” New York State’s budget process.
The proposed amendment would eliminate the strong-executive budget process
created by former Governors Al Smith and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and
recently affirmed by the state’s Court of Appeals